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tAXPAYer ADVOCAte sAYs >>

irs must reveal plans for taxpayer service

Every January, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson releases an annual report to Congress reviewing the previous year’s happenings at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and offering feedback and suggestions to help protect taxpayers. The 2015 report focuses on the IRS’s plans to scale back telephone and face-to-face service, among other issues.

Olson commends Congress for enacting provisions in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which she has strongly supported for many years. “The Taxpayer Bill of Rights is the roadmap to effective tax administration,” Olson states. “It is now up to the IRS to more fully incorporate taxpayer rights into everything it does. However, I have significant concerns that the IRS is embarking on a path that will unintentionally undermine taxpayer rights rather than enhance them, thereby eroding taxpayer trust further.”

Federal law requires the National Taxpayer Advocate’s report to identify at least 20 of the “most serious problems” encountered by taxpayers and to make administrative and legislative recommendations to mitigate those problems. Top issues of the National Taxpayer Advocate include:

>> THE “FUTURE STATE” PLAN — The IRS has been working on a “Future State” plan since 2014, but has yet to make the plan public. The plan provides details on the IRS’s goals to create online taxpayer accounts as well as how budget cuts will affect taxpayer service. Olson urges the IRS to make these documents available.

>> REDUCED SERVICE — Olson says the IRS needs to come clean about its intentions to substantially reduce telephone and face-to-face interaction with taxpayers, and reveal specifics on how assistance will be provided in the future via online accounts.

>> DATA SECURITY — The report raises red flags about the consequences of giving tax return preparers more access to taxpayer accounts. “Through a single-minded emphasis on online accounts, the IRS creates a situation where it will face enormous pressure to open up taxpayer account access to unregulated return preparers,” Olson writes.

the full report is at taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/2015Annualreport. n

DIRTy TRIckS DuRINg Tax SEaSoN

Scammers and thieves

continue to threaten U.S. taxpayers, according to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). ID theft again made the list of the agency’s “Dirty Dozen” series of scams and tricks taxpayers should avoid: 1. PHoNE SCAmS — Aggressive and threatening phone calls by criminals impersonating IRS agents

2. PHISHINg — Fake emails or websites trying to steal personal informationIdentity

3. IDENTITY THEFT

4. RETURN PREPARER FRAUD

5. oFFSHoRE TAx AVoIDANCE

6. INFLATED REFUND CLAImS

7. FAkE CHARITIES — Groups masquerade as charitable organizations to attract donations from unsuspecting contributors.

8. HIDINg INComE wITH FAkE

DoCUmENTS

9. AbUSIVE TAx SHELTERS

10. FALSIFYINg INComE To CLAIm

CREDITS

11. ExCESSIVE CLAImS FoR FUEL

TAx CREDITS

12. FRIVoLoUS TAx ARgUmENTS — Unreasonable and outlandish claims to avoid paying taxes

Check out in-depth info on each item, including info to share with your clients, at irs.gov. n

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eXCeLLent eXCeL >>

remove carriage returns in a snap

In the last issue of Disclosures, I explained how you can use Alt+Enter to add a carriage return to an Excel cell to aid in formatting. For those of you who maybe took carriage returns a little too far, or have inherited them from something you copied and pasted into Excel, here is a quick approach to make all those carriage returns go bye-bye:

1. Open the Find and Replace dialog box by hitting Ctrl+j.

2. With your curser in the “Find what:” field, hit Ctrl+j. (It will enter a dot “.”.)

3. Enter a space or nothing in the “Replace with:” field.

4. Now you are ready to Replace or just Find all those hidden carriage returns.

If you feel the above is too simple, or just does not work for you, there are other ways to remove carriage returns that use formulas or macros, which you can find using your favorite search engine. n

GeOrGe D. struDGeOn, CPA, CGFM, is an audit director at the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts in Richmond. Email him if you have Excel topics you want him to cover. * george.strudgeon@gmail.com connect.vscpa.com/GeorgeStrudgeon

RE-Exam fEE Now IN EffEcT

Beginning Jan. 5, 2016, the Virginia Board of Accountancy (VBOA) is implementing a $20 re-exam fee for candidates who previously sat for any part of the CPA Exam and are considered re-exam candidates. If you are one of these candidates, you will see the fee when you log in and apply for one or multiple sections. The $20 fee applies every time you log in to reapply. The fee was initially approved and effective Jan. 1, 2013, but was delayed for system modifications. n

federally speaking

Top news from the Capitol and other national happenings…

FisCAL YeAr 2016 OMniBus BuDGet BiLL The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the total cost of the tax provisions in the 2016 Omnibus Budget Bill will be $622 billion over 10 years. The bill was signed by President Obama on Dec. 18, 2015.

TAx ExTENDERS mADE PERmANENT Several tax extenders were made permanent in the budget bill; those not made permanent were extended for either two or five years. Permanent extenders include the child tax credit, American opportunity tax credit and earned income tax credit. Bonus first-year depreciation was not made permanent, but was extended through 2019.

UPDATED ACA DEADLINES The budget bill contains delays on deadlines imposed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Cadillac tax on high-cost health coverage is delayed two years and is now effective for tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2019. A 2.3 percent medical device excise tax is also delayed.

irs rAises sMALL Business tAnGiBLe PrOPertY DE MINIMIS The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has raised the de minimus safe harbor for deducting tangible property expenses from $500 to $2,500 for small businesses that do not have applicable financial statements. The increase will relieve a burden on small business that must apply complex capitalization rules to small repairs and purchases.

AuDit FirMs Must DisCLOse AuDit PArtners On neW FOrM To help make audit reports more transparent, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will require audit firms to disclose the names of each audit engagement partner on a new form. The new Form AP will be required for each audit, and the rule goes into effect in 2017. n